In the week before Christmas, a Conservative Kitchener-area MP, created a media storm when he issued a press release saying it was time for Parliament to reconsider the country’s antiquated Criminal Code provisions which do not acknowledge the child in the womb as a human being. Section 223 of the Criminal Code deals with homicide and Section 223(1) defines human being [...]
A new study is calling for increased support for family caregivers in Canada. Supporting Caregivers and Caregiving in an Aging Canada by Janice Keefe of the Institute for Research on Public Policy addresses the pressing issue of how to care for an increasing elderly population as the baby boomer cohort continues to age. Currently, much of home care is provided by informal [...]
Just as the sordid but ongoing saga of filmmaker and convicted pedophile Roman Polanski fades once again from the headlines, stories of child abuse in Hollywood have erupted again, with an unprecedented frequency. Of course, if you don’t know where to look for this sort of news, you might never have heard a thing. In late November, a composer who had won [...]
Dr. James (Jim) McGettigan, a long-time pro-life activist who served as president of the Saskatchewan Coalition for the Protection of Human Life in the 1970s and Campaign Life Coalition Saskatchewan in the 1980s, passed away Nov. 20. As Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes recalls, McGettigan, who also served on the provincial and national boards of CLC, he was a [...]
On Nov. 30, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty introduced Bill 13, The Accepting Schools Act. This arrived on the heels of a tragic and much-publicized suicide involving Ottawa teenager, Jamie Hubley. The teen suffered with depression and happened to also be openly gay. The media dutifully painted the picture that Hubley committed suicide primarily due to “homophobic bullying” despite the fact his father [...]
In defense of the pernicious proposition that all mentally competent Canadians should have a legal right to medical assistance in committing suicide, the “expert panel” of the Royal Society of Canada on end-of-life decision making contends, in its recent report, that: “Autonomy (or the capacity for self-determination) is a paramount value to Canadians. Respect for autonomy requires respect for competent individuals’ [...]
Politically, this past year might have been one of the busiest we ever had. Campaign Life Coalition and its provincial wings were busy with the federal election, elections in five provinces, and local elections in British Columbia (and municipal elections in Ontario near the end of 2010). The Conservatives have a majority so there will not be a federal election until [...]
Honourable mentions: There are notable stories that would typically make the top 10 list, but do not – although they still warrant acknowledgment: the media fury over the 7 billionth person in the world being born; the British Columbia Supreme Court ruling against polygamy; the Supreme Court of Canada decision to keep the Insite “safe injection” clinic in Vancouver open; the release [...]
I have a large box truck with five-foot by ten-foot pictures of aborted babies on both sides. When I feel disgusted at my own passivity in the face of abortion I drive it up and down Highway 401, across the top of Toronto. I don’t know who will see these pictures of these dead babies on a given day. Of [...]
Brian Storseth’s C-304 could be voted on by January Conservative MP Brian Storseth (Westlock-St. Paul) introduced C-304, a private member’s bill which, if passed, would delete sections 13 and 54 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Section 13 “empowers the Commission to deal with complaints regarding the communication of hate messages by telephone or on the Internet” that [...]
Marshall McLuhan is back in the spotlight in a worldwide celebration of 100 years of McLuhan. He wasn’t really gone. What McLuhan – as a cult figure – predicted years ago of an emerging global village, a sort of a Promised Land would arrive. McLuhan, who didn’t think it would necessarily be agreeable or tolerable, was uncannily correct with the ruthless phone-hacking [...]
Inspirational Tales: A Little Golden Book Collection by various authors (Golden Books, 212 pages, $15.95). Review Michael Taube Editor’s Note: Part I, “Little Golden Books provide a big amount of inspiration,” Michael Taube’s review of six short books for children appeared in November. A popular trend in children’s literature has been the release of inexpensive collections of classic stories, fairy tales, poems, [...]
Population and poverty are not inextricably linked According to demographers Joyce Burnette and Joel Mokyr, as humanity’s numbers have grown, our average standard of living has grown as well. These scientists wrote a paper entitled “The Standard of Living Through the Ages,” found in the book The State of Humanity. In it, they point out that every single statistic that we have [...]
Prince Edward Island calls itself a Life Sanctuary. No hospitals or other facility in the province offer any abortion services. With the support of all political parties and members of all religious denominations, P.E.I. became officially abortion-free in 1986. However, off-island, in-hospital abortion costs are covered if the procedure is recommended by two doctors. Abortions at the private Morgentaler facility in [...]
I’m sure that I’ve seen too many movies. There’s no scientific way to be sure, I’ll admit, but the wary feeling I get in my stomach when I sit down in a cinema or open a new DVD is probably some instinctual sign that, many years ago, I should have said “enough, already.” What keeps me going, I suppose, is the rare [...]